The 2018 Whelen Trusted to Perform 200 was the 32nd stock car race of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, the third and final race in the Round of 8, and the 20th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, November 10, 2018, in Avondale, Arizona, at ISM Raceway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent low-banked tri-oval race track. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete. At race's end, Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing would dominate the late stages of the race to win his eighth career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, his seventh win of the season, and a guaranteed spot in the Championship 4.[1] To fill out the podium, Daniel Hemric and Matt Tifft of Richard Childress Racing would finish second and third, respectively.
Background
The layout of ISM Raceway, the venue where the race was held.
The raceway was originally constructed with a 2.5 mi (4.0 km) road course that ran both inside and outside of the main tri-oval. In 1991 the track was reconfigured with the current 1.51 mi (2.43 km) interior layout. PIR has an estimated grandstand seating capacity of around 67,000. Lights were installed around the track in 2004 following the addition of a second annual NASCAR race weekend.
ISM Raceway is home to two annual NASCAR race weekends, one of 13 facilities on the NASCAR schedule to host more than one race weekend a year. The track is both the first and last stop in the western United States, as well as the fourth and penultimate track on the schedule.
The first practice session was held on Friday, November 9, at 12:35 PM MST, and would last for 50 minutes.[2]Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing would set the fastest lap in the session with a time of 27.210 and an average speed of 132.304 miles per hour (212.923 km/h).[3]
The second and final practice session, sometimes referred to as Happy Hour, was held on Friday, November 9, at 2:35 PM MST, and would last for 50 minutes.[2]John Hunter Nemechek of Chip Ganassi Racing would set the fastest lap in the session with a time of 27.053 and an average speed of 133.072 miles per hour (214.159 km/h).[3]
Qualifying was held on Saturday, November 10, at 10:35 AM MST.[2] Since ISM Raceway is under 2 miles (3.2 km), the qualifying system was a multi-car system that included three rounds. The first round was 15 minutes, where every driver would be able to set a lap within the 15 minutes. Then, the second round would consist of the fastest 24 cars in Round 1, and drivers would have 10 minutes to set a lap. Round 3 consisted of the fastest 12 drivers from Round 2, and the drivers would have 5 minutes to set a time. Whoever was fastest in Round 3 would win the pole.[4]
John Hunter Nemechek of Chip Ganassi Racing would win the pole after making through both preliminary rounds and setting a time of 26.970 and an average speed of 133.482 miles per hour (214.818 km/h) in the third round.[5]
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